"You must be thinking of someone else," I teased.
"Come on. Show me those tattoos!"
"Later! When I have a freaking swimsuit on. Unless you are just dying to see my thong."
Heidi raised an eyebrow. "I bet everyone here would die to see your thong."
"You're incorrigible."
"Would you rather talk about Trevor?"
I shook my head. "Let's go back to my thong."
"Did someone say thong?" a voice called from behind me on the deck.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and then exhaled slowly. Exactly what I didn't want to deal with. I turned and came face-to-face with Austin fucking Wright.
He looked … fucking gorgeous. His almost black hair was sharp on the sides but longer in the front. He had dark haunted eyes and a smile like a razor blade. His cheekbones were hollowed and jawline chiseled out of marble. And he was fucking shirtless.
His swim trunks rode low on his hips revealing the carefully maintained six pack beneath and the sexy V. I didn't know how he managed it with the amount of alcohol in his system, but he was cut as fuck. Bulging biceps and ripped pecs with a half sleeve bleeding into his chest. Ink that I had touched every inch of.
I shook myself out of my reverie. Fuck.
"Shocking that you showed up right when we were talking about my underwear."
"Good to see you too, babe," Austin said with a grin.
"Wish I could say the same."
His best friend Patrick trailed behind him with a dopey smile on his face. They both looked loaded. But Austin always held his alcohol better than everyone else. Probably because his tolerance was through the roof considering he drank all the time.
"What's up, Julia?" Patrick said.
I nodded my head at Patrick.
"Y'all coming in?" Heidi called from the water.
"Hell yes!" Patrick ran and jumped into the water next to Heidi. She giggled and splashed him back when he surfaced. "Austin, man, we need something to float our beer!"
"Oh, you're drunk already and still drinking," I snarled. "How shocking!"
Austin set his dark eyes on me and he smiled wickedly. "Heard you broke up with that tool you were seeing."
"Not that it's any of your fucking business."
"Just trying to figure out why you're still acting like this."
"Like what?" I demanded even though I knew it was a bad idea.
"Like you've got a stick up your ass."
I narrowed my eyes and clenched my hands into fists.
"And not even the way that you like it either, babe." He winked, and I flushed scarlet.
"Why are you such a dick?"
He held his arms wide. "Just your average Prince Charming."
I snorted. "There's nothing about you that's charming."
"Nothing about me that's average either."
Then he looked at me in a way that made my clothes melt off. That seductive, eye-fucking, take-me-right-now, all-consuming look of desire that had set me on fire and pushed me into his bed the first time. The same smile that said he was bad, bad news, and I was happy to be on the front page.
"Fuck off, Austin."
I turned to leave, smoke pouring out of my ears. But Austin latched onto my wrist as I tried to break away. "Come with me."
"What part of fuck off did you not understand?"
"Swimming."
"What?" I asked, realizing a half second too late what was about to happen.
He tugged me toward the edge of the dock. I stumbled into him, losing my footing completely. Then vertigo hit. I was weightless suspended in mid-air for a split second with Austin's chest pressed against mine. His smile was magnetic. His lips so fucking inviting. He looked … younger, happier, freer than I'd ever seen him.
Then we crashed into the water. I came up soaking wet in my fucking street clothes, sputtering for breath. Austin popped to the surface right after me. His hands slid down my sides and twirled me back around to face him. He yanked me tight against his body and all cognitive thought fled my mind as I felt the press of every inch of him up against me.
My body went into hyper drive, imagining all the ways he could touch and lick and caress and pleasure my body. All the ways that mouth could make me come. All the ways his dick could lay claim to my body. And I didn't pull away.
I leaned in letting my body take over for once and ignoring my mind entirely. His lips were so close.
So inviting.
So easy to forget.
"Fuck, I love getting you wet, Jules," he breathed seductively.
And then reality crashed back into place.